Arlington residents are nothing if not generous. The county is home to one of the highest-performing Goodwill donation centers in the country.
The nonprofit’s Glebe Road donation center at 10 S. Glebe Road was ranked 6th out of 2,657 donation centers nationwide in 2010.
Actor Jeff Bridges, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Gov. Bob McDonnell will help launch a new statewide anti-hunger campaign at Barcroft Elementary School (625 S. Wakefield Street) next week.
The Academy Award winner is the national spokesperson for No Kid Hungry, a campaign that aims to “end childhood hunger in America by 2015.” The organization says they hope to do so by creating “public-private partnerships at the state level to break down barriers that prevent kids from accessing the food they need.”
The McLean-based Campbell Hoffman Foundation has given the Free Clinic $677,500 for “continued integration of mental health services within primary care.” AFC says it will also use the funds for “primary and specialty care… and pharmacy services.”
“The funding will support and sustain our essential medical services in Arlington County,” said David Lee, MD, chair of AFC’s board. “We are truly grateful for the Foundation’s trust in our capacity to serve the community and for the opportunity to carry forward its important legacy of primary care.”
Moran spent the afternoon helping to check in patients at the clinic’s front desk. Between patients, he talked about the clinic’s importance to the community.
“I wanted to give more visibility to the Arlington Free Clinic and the people they serve,” he said as a half dozen patients read magazines in the clinic’s sunny waiting room. “They desperately need this service. Otherwise they couldn’t afford their prescription medicine, or the preventive care, or the specialized care the clinic is able to refer people to.”
The Young Dems will be holding their 10th annual charity date auction Wednesday from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. at Clarendon Grill (1101 N. Highland Street). More than 100 people have RSVPed for the event, which will feature “over twenty of Arlington’s sexiest bachelors and bachelorettes,” as well as celebrity auctionees Rep. Jim Moran, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, former Rep. Tom Perriello and former DNC Chair Terry McAuliffe.
AYD has released YouTube videos featuring two of its non-celebrity auctionees. Kat, above, is a personal trainer who says she can squat 175 pounds, enough to (probably) lift her date. Be forewarned, gents: you don’t want to pay for her meal with a Groupon. Chris, seen here, will take a lucky lady on a Potomac River sailboat ride with wine and cheese. He expects to fetch at least $10 to $15 at auction.
Like last year, when the chain raised $76,000, IHOP is collecting money on behalf of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
Local IHOPs participating in the promotion include the Ballston location at 935 North Stafford Street and the Potomac Yard location at 3425 Jefferson Davis Highway.
Artisphere Gets Latin Flavor — Arlington’s Guajillo restaurant and the District’s Casa Oaxaca restaurant have been chosen to jointly run a full-service restaurant and bar in Artisphere, the county’s new cultural center. The county board is expected to formally approve a lease at its Jan. 22 meeting. More from TBD.
Le Village Marche Merging with Verbena — Two Shirlington Village stores are becoming one. Le Village Marche, a French housewares store, is moving into the larger retail space of Verbena, a stationary store under the same ownership. The mew store, which will inherit the Le Village Marche name, will continue to offer many of the same products and services as Verbena. More from Shirlington Village Blog.
With family homelessness at historic levels and incidents of domestic violence on the rise, Doorways has seen demand for its services rise in Northern Virginia.
For the next 36 hours, you’ll have the chance to make a small donation to Doorways while being entered into a raffle featuring more than 15 prizes from restaurants and other businesses around D.C.
The Arlington Street People’s Assistance Network is holding a Christmas Eve dinner for homeless individuals at the county’s Emergency Winter Shelter in Courthouse.
The non-profit issued the following press release about the event.
Wheels to Africa, a group founded by Arlington teen Winston Duncan five years ago, will be collecting bikes Saturday to send to people in need in Africa.
Duncan, now 16, held his first collection drive in 2005 when he was just 11. It was a success far beyond his expectations, and soon local and national media outlets were profiling him and simple yet powerful idea of improving the mobility of needy Africans by sending them old bikes.
A delegation of parishioners and Remote Area Medical volunteers will be leaving for a two-week trip to Medor, Haiti on Sunday. Together, the group will conduct a medical clinic for the cholera-ravaged town of 40,000. They will also repair roads and build an airstrip to allow air ambulances to deliver critical supplies.
“Medor has no running water, no sewage or trash disposal, impassable roads and inadequate agriculture,” the church said in a press release. “Like the rest of Haiti, the village has been devastated by a succession of hurricanes, earthquakes and now the deadly cholera epidemic this year.”
A happy hour and a cocktail party are on tap in Clarendon and Bluemont tonight.
The Reading Connection, a group that helps improve literacy for at-risk youth, is holding a happy hour at Mister Days (3100 Clarendon Blvd) from 5:00 to 9:00 tonight. A $5 donation gets you great happy hour specials and a raffle ticket for prizes like an Amazon Kindle 3G or gift cards to local stores.
